Fetterman's plan to hold Washington accountable and fight for Erie families

For my first campaign stop of the general election, I knew Erie had to be the place. I've said before and will say it again: whoever wins Erie County will win Pennsylvania. I've been to beautiful Erie countless times over the years and over the course of this campaign, speaking to the wonderful people here and meeting them where they are. 

But the truth is Washington doesn't care about places like Erie. We've seen jobs get sent overseas by bad trade deals, prices rise while wages don't keep up, and the leaders who are supposed to represent our values in D.C. selling us out to keep their friends and donors happy.   

The people of Erie deserve real solutions that will fight inflation, bring down costs for working families, and take on corporate greed running rampant. We don't need Democratic or Republican solutions. We need patriotic, pro-worker, and pro-American solutions.  

We must bring down costs for working people by making sure huge corporations and the super wealthy pay their fair share, and by holding our leaders accountable. I have a commonsense plan to do just that.  Read about it at https://bit.ly/3CtqQds.

First, we need to lessen the burden of inflation by making more stuff not just in America, but right here in Pennsylvania. Supply chains get a lot simpler when they start and end here at home, so we don't have to rely on other countries. We shouldn't be outsourcing jobs and production to China. 

We'll bring back American manufacturing by punishing the companies that ship jobs overseas, strengthening "Buy American" requirements for companies that do business with the federal government, and mandating that companies we buy from make their products right here at home. 

But when it comes to bringing costs down for working Pennsylvanians, we can't end there. We have to crack down on the massive corporations that are making record profits while jacking up prices for all of us. 

Think about the massive oil companies like Chevron, Exxon, and Shell that have seen their profits increase 200% since last year, but still charge us sky-high prices for gas. And then we have companies like Tyson that posted over $1 billion in profits last quarter, but still raised prices on meat products. 

This price gouging is gross, and deeply unpatriotic.  

We should be prosecuting the executives of these huge corporations, including these big oil companies and meatpacking companies who are artificially driving up prices. 

But it's not just about taking on Wall Street and the big corporations ripping us off, and Pennsylvanians aren't just being hit hard at the gas pump and the grocery store. To deliver real results for people across Pennsylvania, we must cut costs for working Americans at the doctor's office and the pharmacy, too. 

That means ending the stranglehold of health care costs on American families by instituting a cap of $1,000 per year on out-of-pocket costs, passing legislation to allow us to import lower-priced prescription drugs from other countries, putting a cap on prescription drug costs, and going after the pharmaceutical companies jacking up prices. And then I'll fight to hold drug companies accountable for forcing families to ration insulin as they rake in record profits and rip Pennsylvanians off. 

At the same time, we've watched the ultra-wealthy abuse our broken tax code, which has forced working people to pay even more. Massive companies like Amazon are also getting away with paying far less than they should.  

It needs to end. Working people should not be forced to pay higher taxes because the wealthiest Americans and biggest companies aren't paying their fair share.  

We must make the tax system more fair to bring down taxes for working people and increase taxes on huge companies and the super wealthy — because we know they can afford it. And we should make sure Wall Street, hedge fund managers, and mega-millionaires pay their fair share by enacting a financial transaction tax on trades of stocks, bonds, and derivatives. 

For decades, we've seen out-of-touch politicians in Washington sell out people on factory floors to benefit their friends in corporate boardrooms. It's despicable. The people we send to Washington need to work for us — not for their donors or rich friends.  

Erie deserves a senator who actually gets it, a real Pennsylvanian who understands the pain that families are feeling across this commonwealth and will fight like hell for them. We need real solutions — not a celebrity's vanity project —because right now, we can't afford anything less. 

John Fetterman is the Democratic candidate in Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race.

The Erie Times-News invited candidates for Pennsylvania governor, U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, Pennsylvania 16th District, and those running in several local state House of Representatives races to submit guest columns outlining their platforms. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, did not submit a guest column.